reddal

Think hard about what you want to achieve, what your priorities are, what aspects are most important to you, what aesthetics you care about etc etc. Try to build that into a clear vision of the project from your point of view. Once you have that try to find an architect/designer who buys into your vision and you think can help deliver it. The ideas will evolve and change of course - you shouldn't be married to them - but if you don't have your own vision you end up with someone elses. Then work out carefully how much you think it will cost to build your project - add on 20% contingency and call this your budget. Then multiply that number by 1.5 to see what its actually going to cost and work out how you are going to pay for it!

I've heard of some people using companies to buy/build properties as a way of avoiding (evading?) income tax. It sounds very dodgy to me and I wouldn't recommend it - but relies on the company already existing and having significant profits built up in it. ie typically someone runs a personal service company (IT contractor or similar) and doesn't pay themselves much salary or dividend for a few years so doesn't pay much income tax. Then their company braches out into property development - the company buys or builds a house using the built up profits. Then they just live in the house (maybe paying some nominal rent to the company) - and never paid a penny in income tax! Downside is that any gains made when the property is sold belong to the company so attract corporation tax - as opposed to being tax free as your main residence. - reddal

Welcome - and good luck!

Hi, Following on from this thread - It reminded me that the filters in our systems haven't been changed in ages and are bound to need changing now. Trouble is they are expensive - we have 2 Villavent VR400DCV systems and the only way I know how to get filters is direct from Villavent - at £80+vat each IIRC - i.e. nearly £200 each time for a pair - and this will be the 5th set of filters in the last 4 years! Anyone know of a cheaper way to get filters for this specific unit? Jeremy - how did you work out what to order from that website? I don't see mention of specific models - did you have to provide them with a spec for the type and dimensions etc - or did they already know how to make compatible filters for your unit? There has to be a cheaper way to keep these systems running? If not then the difference in cost of ongoing maintenance should be a major factor in people's decisions of which model to choose. - reddal

If you are building a house for yourself to live in then I would just do the normal self build VAT reclaim process. If you are building a house as a commercial venture that you don't intend to live in then a company would make more sense. Remember a company has to pay corporation tax etc which can complicate things. - reddal

Hi, We have traditional UFH in our ground floor and basement and rads + towel rads in bedrooms/bathrooms upstairs. If i was doing it all again I would do UFH everywhere. The idea at the time was that the 1st floor heating would hardly (if ever) get used - but the reality is it does make a difference and the control system on the UFH is much better than the one we ended up with on the rads. An electric UFH system would probably work fine - they key thing is to have a seperate thermostat controlling heating of each room. - reddal

I recommend goats. Sheep can be a bit fussy about some weeds etc - but goats will eat just about anything as far as I can tell. Put a couple of goats in your garden and within weeks the whole thing will be perfectly mowed all year around,

Ah yes - I see your point. Nice idea.

Is the power usage when only recording on motion really a lot less? The camera electronics still need to be active to detect motion - they don't have to do the compression and saving to the card most of the time - but maybe that doesn't save very much?

A typical CCTV camera doesn't use a lot of power - a few watts I think - maybe up to 20w if using IR at night. However you usually have to run a wire from the camera back to a recording device - so you can normally use the same run to provide power to the camera. Most modern IP cameras have PoE (power over ethernet) so you can use a single ethernet cable for both the signal and the power. Some cameras can record onto a local storage card - and a solar solution could make sense there for locations too remote for wiring. However if someone nicks the camera the footage is gone too! Also you would need a panel, a battery and some electronics to make it all work together - so I doubt it would be cheap. However thinking about it - there are fairly cheap solar kits for 12v lighting you might be able to use (CCTV cameras normally use the same 12v system). -reddal

+1 to this. We thought about doing this - but I wish we had done more and more systematically. If doing it again I would photograph every meter of wall and ceiling so I could trace every wire, pipe and duct's exact position.

We found it tricky too. The trouble is suppliers seem to judge how clueless you are and apply a multiplier to their normal pricing based on that! So its easy to get ripped off when you aren't an expert. A few tactics : 1. Tell the supplier you are getting quotes from several companies and they should give their best and final quote as there will be no negotiation. And then ask for another 10% off :). 2. Take along a friendly expert so they know they wont get away with any nonsense. 3. Where feasible - consider avoiding the whole fixed price quote model - and instead you buy materials and hire tradespeople on daily rates. ie you take any risks rather than asking them to price in the risk. This model isn't for everyone - but we found it more sucessful and less antagonistic than the fixed price quote model. - reddal

I bought a 5kW diesel generator a few years ago for similar reasons. However I never got it wired into a switchover box as I discovered we have a 3 phase consumer unit - and couldn't work out how to feed that from the single phase generator. The circuits in the house are spread between the 3 phases - nothing uses all three. I could power one of the phases from the generator - but this would mean choosing 1/3 of the curcuits and the way its been wired up wouldn't be ideal. I've used the generator a few times around the property - and once during a power cut with a big extension cable trailing into the house. Thinking about it I havent powered it up in over year. Damn I bet these things need some kind of maintenance to stop them dying when not used for long periods. I need to sort that... - reddal

" Another container (you can't have too many) " Agree - containers are great. They should cost a fortune - but get given away because more stuff gets shipped to our part of the world than from us.

Hi, I agree with your point about the term 'Thermal mass' being much misunderstood and misused. Its interesting to think about alternative measures of how good a material is at providing heat capacity. i.e. instead of Heat capacity per unit mass - we could look at Heat capacity per unit volume. I think ordering by that would give : So wood does worse under this measure and concrete/granite a little better. We can go further and estimate the cost of installing a m3 of each material (installing a m3 of water is going to involve tanks or pipes etc so isn't cheap!). I made up some numbers for the costs - which may be off - then used these to calculate the Heat capacity per unit cost. Ordering by that gives : So in terms of heat capacity per £ spent - Concrete is the winner by a distance - and wood is very bad. Maybe my estimates and/or calculations are wrong? So we have 3 different measures - each of which captures a different aspect of what people mean when they say 'thermal mass' : Heat capacity per unit mass Heat capacity per unit volume Heat capacity per unit cost Different materials look better or worse depending on which measure you use. Not sure if that is useful or just adds to the confusion - I just thought it was interesting :). - reddal

Hi, We built our house a few years ago.I wasn't part of this kind of forum at the time - but in hindsight it would have saved a lot of stress and money if I'd had support from this community. Since the house was completed I've had lots of help with various issues from the people in this community which I'm very grateful for, Moral of the tale - if you are building a house - or doing work on one - get involved here, contribute and ask questions. - reddal